GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

The Bustard Targa Rally – 22nd July 2018

Run by Salisbury and Shaftesbury Car Club for the first time this year as a Targa Rally, it last ran as an Endurance Rally in 2014. With over 30 miles of Tests including Worthy Farm and Slait Barns, the entry filled quickly and 50 crews lined up at the start in Shepton Mallet, including myself and George seeded Car 1.

The event started with a very short gravel Test in a car park at Worthy Farm, which went well, before heading out onto the tracks around the farm and fields for two 5 mile Tests.
I started quickly on Test 2, but didn’t realise how little grip there was on the loose gravel and we had 5 or 6 overshoots during the Test as George tried to keep up, having not navigated on a Road Rally for over a year. At the finish we knew our time was not good as Car 2, James Newbould / Lizzie Pope had beaten us by 30s!

On the short link between test 2 & 3, we decided I needed to slow down a little bit to stop overshooting the cone manoeuvres. This worked very well and we were quickest on this Test by over 30s!



After Worthy Farm, we headed towards Frome for a Test around Frome Showground followed by 2 Tests at Witham Hall Farm. Both of these are regularly used on the Bath Festival but driving them in daylight was a bit different. We were quickest by a couple of seconds on all 3.

Next we headed south to Slait Barns, a 3 mile gravel test around a solar farm. Great fun with plenty of grip and it was good to see a lot of my Tavern Motor Club out marshalling on this test. We were quickest again, but only just from Ben Smith / Simon Harris who remembered it well from the Endurance events.

Arriving at petrol, we were surprised to find we had been leading after Worthy Farm and when the results were updated we were 37s ahead of James & Lizzie, with Ben & Simon only 3s behind them. A lot of the FWD cars were having trouble with tyre wear in the very hot conditions, and when I checked my A021R's I found the rear tyres were not going to last the day, so George and I fitted the spares.

After petrol, we headed back to Frome Showground for a slightly different test, then over to Slait Barns for the reverse of the morning Test. We extended our lead on these 2 tests before moving on to a short Test at Pylle along part of an old railway. This was run twice and was mucky and slippery under the trees so we had a sensible run through. Test 12 was across a couple of fields used for parking at Glastonbury Festival, then it was back to Worthy Farm for the final 2 long Tests.

Knowing we had a chance of winning, I drove steadily through the first of these which doesn’t always help the concentration and we were 5th quickest – the final test we had a better run and were quickest again.
We nervously awaited the results at the finish, hoping we had not picked up any cones penalties, and were pleased to see the results go final with us winning by 1m 8s from Ben & Simon.

Many thanks to Salisbury & Shaftesbury Car Club, all the marshals and especially to George for navigating.
After 7 years and 21 road rallies, this was the first time we have won a rally together. And, as George had won the last Great Bustard Endurance, it was fitting that she won the first Bustard Targa!

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

After the Festival, my next event was the Classic Tracks in May in West Wales. This time Carrie and I went over the night before and stayed at Jamie Jukes' farm, just up the road from the start. A beautiful place with his own gravel test track which we've been round on the Classic Tracks before, but it wasn't being used this year.
We hadn't done the event for a few years, but it used some familiar Tests and some new ones. We had an enjoyable day, but weren't quite on it as much as usual, so were pleased to finish 10th overall.

Next was the Kemble Targa, double driving with Antons Kuzenko. The tyre rules were quite restrictive and the only ones I had which complied were worn knobblies, which worked surprisingly well on the dry tarmac and concrete. After a close battle with Ben Griffin in his Peugeot 106 Rallye, I finished 2nd overall just 5s behind Ben.
Navigating for Antons, he was also driving well and finished 4th in his Peugeot 205 GTi.

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Brilliant Gavin well done

Good to hear dan stone is still rallying too

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

The Festival Targa Rally - 31st March 2018

Run by Bath Motor Club for the last 6 years as a Night Road Rally, increasing PR problems forced the organisers to turn it into a Targa Rally, using the same forests and tracks they had used on the Road Rally. It was scheduled for 3rd March, but was postponed to 31st due to snow. I'd entered with George but she couldn't make the revised date so Carrie agreed to sit in with me. And with the top seed unable to make the revised date, we were Car 1 out of 50.

Having an extra 4 weeks to prep Fly, I added a few bonus features, such as headlight washers mounted on the bumper - I used Land Rover Defender washer jets which are quite tall, and fitted a second Mk2 Escort washer bottle on the inside of the inner wing, just above the chassis rail, fed off the windscreen washer circuit - usually if the windscreen is muddy, the lights will be as well. I also added some splash shields between the sumpguard and chassis rails to try and stop as much water getting in the engine bay - I used mudflap material screwed to the sumpguard cross member as I didn't want to drill holes in the sumpguard of chassis legs. This seemed to help as the engine bay is cleaner than usual and we didn't have any water problems despite hitting some large puddles at speed!

Parked up at the start - a good selection of cars competing



The first test was run twice just as it was getting dark - a short concrete road which starts with a square right, under a railway bridge with a bump on the exit



Then into the proper forest tests - luckily the rain had stopped at lunchtime but it had rained for the previous 24 hours making everything wet, muddy and very slippery in places. The advice from the organisers was to keep it in the middle but even that was tricky at times!



We arrived at petrol after 8 tests and found we were leading by 8s after 4 tests, but knew we were quicker than that as the top 5 had beaten the bogey on Test 3 by varying amounts. As we left it looked like we were 40s ahead which was very good, but having had a huge moment on Test 6 there was still plenty to do. And the front left wheel was knocking - play in the compression strut joint but all the bolts were tight, so try to ignore it!



The forests used are owned by Longleat and also Stourhead Estate and were in pretty good condition. The worst one was Southleigh Woods - it was rough last year and even rougher this year. The second half had 6 tests, all repeats of ones we had done earlier and the tracks had dried out a bit allowing us to get more power down, but cut up in other places.
The next 3 tests we improved our times by 13s, 9s and 21s so knew we were going well



Last pic on the final corner of the last test - we'd stopped before this one to have another look at the front left as it was getting worse, but couldn't do anything with it so carried on.



Back at the finish just after 1am for a nice chicken curry, we waited for the results. At petrol we had been leading by 1m 3s but we always get worried that we might have picked up a few penalties along the way... and when the final results came out at 3am, we needn't have worried!

1st overall by 2m 34s - we were quickest on 11 out of the 14 tests
2nd was Jason Stone & Dan Stone in a freshly built BMW 318 Compact - a good achievement as Jason hasn't driven competitively for at least 5 years
3rd was Paul Freeth & Chris Head in a Rover 200, 15s behind Jason and Dan due to more Test Penalties

Many thanks to Bath Motor Club, all the marshals and Carrie for pointing me in the right direction!

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I've probably got 40-50 wellers, mainly 6" and 7", with a few 5 1/2". Never had a problem with them and if you get the right spoke style (there's about 3 different styles) the 6" ones fit over Monte Carlo calipers with a 1/4" spacer. They don't weigh much either

[onecamohv]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I think Gavin must own most of the weller wheels in the country!

i managed to pry 4 off him a few years ago

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I think Gavin must own most of the weller wheels in the country!

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

cars looking fresh

i thought that

[freddy686868]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

cars looking fresh

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

nice one

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Another win I see Gavin

Well done!!

That was the Bonfire Targa at Wethersfield which I competed on with Antons Kuzenko navigating for me for the first time - Antons was also driving his 206 GTi with his regular navigator alongside

There were 3 loops of 5 tests and 2nd after the first loop, 7s off the leader and 5s ahead of 3rd. Antons was doing well, calling the cones in the same way that I'm used to

At the lunch break, I was leading by 10s - until they included the cone penalties which put me 10s behind. There were 2 cones near the end of one test, set at an angle and I thought we could squeeze through without lifting but managed to nudge both sides

On the very next test, the leader Adrian White (BMW 318) got slightly lost and dropped 14s, so I knew I just had to keep it clean to get the win
I managed to avoid all the cones and won by 8s from Andrew Bainbridge (Clio Williams) with Adrian another 9s behind



This year hasn't started as well - in fact it hasn't started at all!
George and I entered the Bagger Road Rally in January but pulled out the night before - I was suffering from flu and George was losing her voice...
Then tomorrow we were supposed to be out on the Bath Festival Targa which has been postponed due to snow (as have 4 other rallies this weekend)

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Another win I see Gavin

Well done!!

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

I do a similar job on my motor clubs targa event the shaw trophy
Unreal how many hours go into it nd how many things need to be sorted
Even driving around as car 0 is stressful always worried I’m going to make a fool of myself

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

nice one, also nice to read about someone else putting something back in re organizing events, which is how i ended up a committee member of an msa club and scrutineer, as a competitor you just dont have any idea of the work behind the scenes which is mostly done by un paid volunteers

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

Exmoor Targa Rally - Sat 7th October 2017

A brief bit of history...
I joined Tavern Motor Club in July 2008 but only got involved in November 2008 when Martin and George Clark organised a 12 car which started 2 miles from my house - I went along and marshalled and started going to the club nights. At the AGM in April 2009, Martin asked for a volunteer to help with the Exmoor Endurance Rally, specifically the night route, so I stuck my hand up. In 2010 I was invited onto the committee and took over as Chairman in 2013 and I'm still Chairman today.
Endurance rallies had been invented in 2004 by Phillip Young as a low cost formula for standardish cars of up to 1400cc. I'd never taken much notice of them as I didn't have a suitable car, so it was something I was happy to help out on. Martin started the Exmoor in 2008 and Tavern ran it with help from Burnham on Sea and Minehead Motor Clubs.
Martin and George organised the whole route with forest and tarmac tests during the day and a 60 mile road rally at night. My job was to sort out the marshals for the night route and go round in Fly to make sure they were all in place. I did this in 2009, 2010 and 2012, the 2011 event being cancelled due to lack of entries.
After Martin suffered a stroke in September 2012, George continued to organise the event with help from various people, running it in 2012 and 2014, the 2013 event being cancelled due to tree disease!
But the Endurance formula was dying out - it proved to be quite expensive to run a competitive car, the top crews using adjustable suspension and 6 new tyres per event, together with frequent rebuilds due to some rather rough events, the entry levels were dropping year by year and the Endurance Road Rally Championship finished at the end of 2014 with George winning the Navigator Championship.
George stepped down from organising the Exmoor after a successful 2014 event so I took over in 2015 with everyone on the organising team agreeing to turn the event into a Targa Rally, thus allowing Road Rally cars to run alongside Endurance cars in an effort to boost entries.

In 2015 and 2016 we had just over 40 entries but this year things improved with an entry of 60, although only 53 started.
The organisation starts in April with a route being submitted to the MSA, followed by meetings with the Forestry Commission for the forest tests and Porlock Manor Estate for the tarmac tests, dealing with the Rights of Way dept at the council for any footpaths or bridleways on the Tests, and PR'ing any properties on the minor roads used on the link sections.
This year we had 38 miles of tests with 100 miles of link sections for £175 which included a hot meal at the finish.

The most enjoyable aspect of organising the event is driving Fly as Car 0 on the day "waking up the marshals"
We use the MSA Radios as on Stage Rallies, so once the Chief Marshal and Set Up crews have been through, I get the all clear and drive round at a competitive speed. On reaching the Finish, I radio in and the Start marshals send in the first car. Everything ran like clockwork with no hold ups - all the tests started within 1 minute of the time schedule

Overnight rain had made it very slippery on the early Tests but the sun came out later so it was a bit quicker in the afternoon.
Here are some pics from Andy Manston

Croydon Forest in the morning


Kennisham Forest in the morning


Catching up with the marshals at the start of Croydon after lunch


Croydon again, enjoying the sunshine


Exiting one of the many chicances used to slow the cars down to a 30mph average


And the final Kennisham Test before returning to the Finish